Ian Mulgrew: Vancouver's OneCard ignites legal donnybrook

Hillcrest is one of six rogue community associations asking the B.C. Supreme Court to halt implementation of the park board’s OneCard scheme.

Photograph by: Jason Payne
, Vancouver Sun

They are odd combatants — the oppressor, a supposedly draconian Vancouver park board, and the oppressed, six seemingly victimized community associations.

Similarly, you wouldn’t think a sensible universal access card for recreational programs and classes in city facilities — the OneCard scheme — would ignite such a legal donnybrook.

Yet the half-dozen associations are urging the B.C. Supreme Court to intervene, halt the program’s implementation and help them beat back the nefarious plan.

In response, the board has issued notices of termination and announced it will assume control of the centres.

Lawyer Peter Roberts, of Lawson Lundell, who sits on a number of boards and represents various similar societies, says it is a fascinating squabble.

The Rogue Six insist they are trying to remain grassroots organizations in a fight that pits the statutory authority of the board to govern the community centres against the very local efforts that created them.

“These associations are not creatures who generally have the money, are organized enough or have the moral fortitude to want to engage in what can become a very expensive and complicated process,” Roberts said.

There are two separate court hearings involving the board and the groups from Hastings, Kensington, Kerrisdale, Killarney, Riley Park, Hillcrest and Sunset.

The first began Tuesday with their request for an injunction against the OneCard scheme and the board’s plan to seize their operations.

The associations argue that local membership is vital to their ability to recruit volunteers, connect with facility users, understand neighbourhood recreational needs and campaign for funding.

The board, however, disputes just about everything they say including the suggestion that OneCard sounds “the death knell for community associations.”

The second hearing, about the issues, is set for Nov. 18 to 20, though the chances of those proceedings wrapping up so quickly seems more than optimistic.

The associations’ notice of civil claim is extensive and complicated.

“They are fighting for their lives or what they see as their lives — that’s what they say in the lengthy statement of claim,” Roberts explained.

The associations fear that if they don’t manage and program the community centres people will stop caring about them.

If you can use a facility without paying a local membership fee, Roberts said, why would you pay it and belong to the local association?

“The societies are also afraid that the park board isn’t going to collect the membership fees any more because they don’t have to, and what they do collect may not be remitted,” he added.

“It does come down to a money issue, but also what purpose will the societies fulfil after this? What role do they play if they are not running the programs, managing the finances or even have members any more? Why would you pay an extra $10 or $15 bucks to join the society to use the swimming pool if you can access the pool by purchasing a OneCard?”Legally, the associations face an uphill fight.

As long as the park board is within its sandbox of authority, the court will not second-guess the OneCard policy.

That’s why the associations have staked out a more nuanced position — “we helped you build these centres up in partnership over many, many years and, as a consequence, you implicitly agreed despite what the joint operating agreements say, not to change the nature of our relationship or the programming offered without our consent and you haven’t got our consent.”

“So much of it is fact dependant — who said what to whom over time,” Roberts said, noting the associations filed two, three-inch volumes of evidence on the injunction application alone.

“What they are effectively saying is through a long course of conduct between the two entities there have been implicit terms to the arrangement that are beyond the joint operating agreements and those implicit terms are the ones that the park board is violating. That is a difficult claim to prove generally because most people say we write a contract so that everybody knows where we stand.”

But not impossible.

“The park board is well-meaning,” Roberts said, “but the effect is likely going to be to kill off these local societies. That is kind of sad in a way because these community centres have storied pasts — they cite Bing Crosby’s support for fundraising efforts. They did a lot at the time that government bodies couldn’t or wouldn’t do. They are sort of being left behind. All that history is being forgotten — it is sort of unfair.”

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